[BUG] NMP v7 error on install — 'must provide string spec' #2117

davesag · 2020-11-03T23:59:56Z

Current Behavior:

Trying to run npm install on my project api-server-boilerplate gives error

error must provide string spec

Full error log

0 verbose cli [
0 verbose cli   '/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/bin/node',
0 verbose cli   '/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/bin/npm',
0 verbose cli   'install'
0 verbose cli ]
1 info using [email protected]
2 info using [email protected]
3 timing config:load:defaults Completed in 1ms
4 timing config:load:file:/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/npmrc Completed in 1ms
5 timing config:load:builtin Completed in 1ms
6 timing config:load:cli Completed in 1ms
7 timing config:load:env Completed in 0ms
8 timing config:load:file:/Users/davesag/src/personal/api-server-boilerplate/.npmrc Completed in 0ms
9 timing config:load:project Completed in 1ms
10 timing config:load:file:/Users/davesag/.npmrc Completed in 0ms
11 timing config:load:user Completed in 0ms
12 timing config:load:file:/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/etc/npmrc Completed in 0ms
13 timing config:load:global Completed in 0ms
14 timing config:load:cafile Completed in 0ms
15 timing config:load:validate Completed in 0ms
16 timing config:load:setUserAgent Completed in 1ms
17 timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 0ms
18 timing config:load Completed in 5ms
19 verbose npm-session 6ab716390ebb1b7a
20 timing npm:load Completed in 10ms
21 timing arborist:ctor Completed in 0ms
22 timing idealTree Completed in 20ms
23 timing command:install Completed in 21ms
24 verbose stack TypeError: must provide string spec
24 verbose stack     at new Edge (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/edge.js:32:13)
24 verbose stack     at Node.[_loadDepType] (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/node.js:536:9)
24 verbose stack     at Node.[Arborist.Node._loadDeps] (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/node.js:504:23)
24 verbose stack     at new Node (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/node.js:224:20)
24 verbose stack     at Arborist.[loadVirtualNode] (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/load-virtual.js:253:18)
24 verbose stack     at Arborist.[resolveNodes] (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/load-virtual.js:180:43)
24 verbose stack     at Arborist.[loadFromShrinkwrap] (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/load-virtual.js:84:46)
24 verbose stack     at Arborist.loadVirtual (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/load-virtual.js:64:36)
24 verbose stack     at async Arborist.buildIdealTree (/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:200:7)
24 verbose stack     at async Promise.all (index 1)
25 verbose cwd /Users/davesag/src/personal/api-server-boilerplate
26 verbose Darwin 19.6.0
27 verbose argv "/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/bin/node" "/Users/davesag/.nvm/versions/node/v15.0.1/bin/npm" "install"
28 verbose node v15.0.1
29 verbose npm  v7.0.7
30 error must provide string spec
31 verbose exit 1

Expected Behaviour:

I expected it to install as per normal, or at least get an error that tells me what to do to fix it.

I have searched for this "must provide string spec" and can't find any results.

The only fix is to roll back npm to v6

Steps To Reproduce:

git clone [email protected]:davesag/api-server-boilerplate.git
cd api-server-boilerplate
npm install

Environment:

OS: macOS 10.15.7 (19H2)
Node: 15.0.1
npm: 7.0.7

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

nlf · 2020-11-04T15:43:51Z

can you try again with npm 7.0.8? i wasn't able to reproduce this in either node 14.15.0 or 15.0.1 when using npm 7.0.8

davesag · 2020-11-06T07:48:24Z

Yes 7.0.8 appears to have fixed the problem.

sjahlstrom · 2020-11-16T19:02:53Z

% npm install config
npm ERR! must provide string spec

% node --version
v15.2.0

% npm --version
7.0.10

silvenon · 2020-11-19T00:11:53Z

In my case it happened when I had a git conflict in package-lock.json and tried to run npm install.

[email protected]
[email protected]

wraithgar · 2021-01-21T21:59:05Z

I can't reproduce this w/ v7.4.3 and neither could @nlf when he tried it. Without more info on how this can reliably be reproduced I'm going to close this. If this is still an issue, either reopen this with more details or create a new issue.

silvenon · 2021-01-22T08:25:56Z

@wraithgar unless npm has a feature of auto-resolving merge conflict in package-lock.json, no problem, otherwise I can try to come up with a repro.

wraithgar · 2021-01-22T15:27:03Z

Merge conflicts can be (usually) solved by using https://github.com/npm/npm-merge-driver

diberry · 2021-02-09T23:05:22Z

I'm getting this on Windows 10 (MSFT corpnet/VPN) with npm 7.0.0 after cloning:

git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azure-cosmos-db-cassandra-nodejs-getting-started.git

Then running:

npm install

No lock file but the package.json file does look unusual:

{
  "name": "packages.json",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "lockfileVersion": 1,
  "requires": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "assert": "^1.4.1",
    "async": "^2.5.0",
    "cassandra-driver": "^3.3.0",
    "dateformat": "^3.0.2",
    "long": {
      "integrity": "sha1-n6GAux2VAM3CnEFWdmoZleH0Uk8=",
      "resolved": "https://registry.npmjs.org/long/-/long-2.4.0.tgz",
      "version": "2.4.0"
    },
    "system-sleep": "^1.3.6"
  }
}

ljharb · 2021-02-09T23:15:53Z

@diberry can you try npm v7.5.3? v7.0.0 is missing a great many bug fixes.

diberry · 2021-02-09T23:39:08Z

@ljharb

josegl · 2021-03-04T11:01:06Z

I'm having the same problem.

> node --version
v15.11.0
> npm --version
7.6.0
> npm install
npm ERR! must provide string spec

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/jgl/.npm/_logs/2021-03-04T10_59_06_851Z-debug.log
> cat /home/jgl/.npm/_logs/2021-03-04T10_59_06_851Z-debug.log
0 verbose cli [ '/usr/bin/node', '/usr/bin/npm', 'install' ]
1 info using [email protected]
2 info using [email protected]
3 timing config:load:defaults Completed in 0ms
4 timing config:load:file:/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/npmrc Completed in 1ms
5 timing config:load:builtin Completed in 1ms
6 timing config:load:cli Completed in 1ms
7 timing config:load:env Completed in 0ms
8 timing config:load:file:/home/jgl/dev/walcu/mapp/webclient/.npmrc Completed in 0ms
9 timing config:load:project Completed in 0ms
10 timing config:load:file:/home/jgl/.npmrc Completed in 1ms
11 timing config:load:user Completed in 1ms
12 timing config:load:file:/usr/etc/npmrc Completed in 0ms
13 timing config:load:global Completed in 0ms
14 timing config:load:cafile Completed in 0ms
15 timing config:load:validate Completed in 0ms
16 timing config:load:setUserAgent Completed in 0ms
17 timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 1ms
18 timing config:load Completed in 4ms
19 verbose npm-session d9a89f826c253f16
20 timing npm:load Completed in 8ms
21 timing arborist:ctor Completed in 1ms
22 timing idealTree Completed in 6ms
23 timing command:install Completed in 15ms
24 verbose stack TypeError: must provide string spec
24 verbose stack     at new Edge (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/edge.js:48:13)
24 verbose stack     at Node.[_loadDepType] (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/node.js:771:9)
24 verbose stack     at Node.[Arborist.Node._loadDeps] (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/nod
e.js:758:23)
24 verbose stack     at new Node (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/node.js:231:20)
24 verbose stack     at Arborist.[rootNodeFromPackage] (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arb
orist/build-ideal-tree.js:355:18)
25 verbose cwd /home/jgl/dev/walcu/mapp/webclient
26 verbose Linux 5.11.2-arch1-1
27 verbose argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
28 verbose node v15.11.0
29 verbose npm  v7.6.0
30 error must provide string spec
31 verbose exit 1

Feder1co5oave · 2021-03-06T15:14:08Z

I also experienced this annoying bug after upgrading npm (on Ubuntu 18.04, installed via nodesource).

{
  npm: '7.6.1',
  node: '14.15.5',
  v8: '8.4.371.19-node.18',
  uv: '1.40.0',
  zlib: '1.2.11',
  brotli: '1.0.9',
  ares: '1.16.1',
  modules: '83',
  nghttp2: '1.41.0',
  napi: '7',
  llhttp: '2.1.3',
  openssl: '1.1.1i',
  cldr: '37.0',
  icu: '67.1',
  tz: '2020a',
  unicode: '13.0'
}

I reinstalled nodejs via apt. NPM was downgraded back to 6.x:

{
  npm: '6.14.11',
  ares: '1.16.1',
  brotli: '1.0.9',
  cldr: '37.0',
  icu: '67.1',
  llhttp: '2.1.3',
  modules: '83',
  napi: '7',
  nghttp2: '1.41.0',
  node: '14.16.0',
  openssl: '1.1.1j',
  tz: '2020a',
  unicode: '13.0',
  uv: '1.40.0',
  v8: '8.4.371.19-node.18',
  zlib: '1.2.11'
}

This fixed the issue. Is npm 7.x not compatible with node 14.x? If so, why is it upgraded by npm install -g npm ?

nlf · 2021-03-06T15:32:30Z

npm 7.x is definitely supported on node 14

are any of you able to create a reproduction case for this? if you’re able to share your package.json and package-lock.json that would help too. we haven’t been able to reproduce this one, so any help in that would be the first step toward getting it fixed

sprise · 2021-03-08T23:51:16Z

I had this problem on Ubuntu 18.04 with NPM 7.6.0 and NodeJS v15.11.0. Got the error "must provide string spec" and the debug log did not have a smoking gun in it.

I kicked my tiny package.json and created a new one, and then reinstalled all dependencies without issues. Did not need to downgrade NPM, could not reproduce the problem after that.

ajeetshah · 2021-03-13T19:08:22Z

To solve it, I had to delete package-lock.json file.

Houssk · 2021-03-16T10:17:56Z

I solve the problem by downgrade npm to 6.X.X ....

jpall12 · 2021-03-17T18:46:34Z

$ npm i node-fetch
npm ERR! must provide string spec

$ npm -v
7.6.3

To solve I had to delete the package.json file.

MrSalazer · 2021-03-24T08:08:11Z

I also need help with this, I'm using node v15.8.0, and I get 'must provide a string spec' when I try to npm install passport passport-discord. Are there any suggestion on which node version I should use or anything else that could fix

wyatt-troia · 2021-03-27T18:51:47Z

Deleting package-lock.json didn't work for me. I had to downgrade to npm 6.14.11

syabro · 2021-03-29T09:38:10Z

In my case I had

...
  "dependencies": {
    "//": [],
...

Since I've used it to leave comments in package.json. After removing - works fine

ronilaukkarinen · 2021-06-21T18:33:19Z

Strangely enough, on my machine this happens only on Windows 10 / WSL with nodejs 7.x.x installed.

Logfile 2021-06-21T18_29_07_396Z-debug.log:

0 verbose cli [
0 verbose cli   'C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe',
0 verbose cli   'C:\\Users\\Rolle\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js',
0 verbose cli   'i',
0 verbose cli   'node-fetch'
0 verbose cli ]
1 info using [email protected]
2 info using [email protected]
3 timing config:load:defaults Completed in 1ms
4 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\npmrc Completed in 0ms
5 timing config:load:builtin Completed in 0ms
6 timing config:load:cli Completed in 1ms
7 timing config:load:env Completed in 0ms
8 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\Rolle\Projects\rollemaa\.npmrc Completed in 0ms
9 timing config:load:project Completed in 1ms
10 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\Rolle\.npmrc Completed in 0ms
11 timing config:load:user Completed in 0ms
12 timing config:load:file:C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\etc\npmrc Completed in 0ms
13 timing config:load:global Completed in 0ms
14 timing config:load:cafile Completed in 0ms
15 timing config:load:validate Completed in 0ms
16 timing config:load:setUserAgent Completed in 1ms
17 timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 0ms
18 timing config:load Completed in 4ms
19 verbose npm-session 73e796bf8774024c
20 timing npm:load Completed in 10ms
21 timing arborist:ctor Completed in 0ms
22 timing idealTree Completed in 5ms
23 timing command:install Completed in 7ms
24 verbose stack TypeError: must provide string spec
24 verbose stack     at new Edge (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\edge.js:32:13)
24 verbose stack     at Node.[_loadDepType] (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\node.js:530:9)
24 verbose stack     at Node.[Arborist.Node._loadDeps] (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\node.js:519:25)
24 verbose stack     at new Node (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\node.js:226:20)
24 verbose stack     at Arborist.[rootNodeFromPackage] (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\arborist\build-ideal-tree.js:335:12)
24 verbose stack     at C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\arborist\build-ideal-tree.js:283:42
24 verbose stack     at async Arborist.buildIdealTree (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\arborist\build-ideal-tree.js:199:7)
24 verbose stack     at async Promise.all (index 1)
24 verbose stack     at async Arborist.reify (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\node_modules\@npmcli\arborist\lib\arborist\reify.js:121:5)
24 verbose stack     at async install (C:\Users\Rolle\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\npm\lib\install.js:40:5)
25 verbose cwd C:\Users\Rolle\Projects\rollemaa
26 verbose Windows_NT 10.0.19042
27 verbose argv "C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe" "C:\\Users\\Rolle\\AppData\\Roaming\\npm\\node_modules\\npm\\bin\\npm-cli.js" "i" "node-fetch"
28 verbose node v14.0.0
29 verbose npm  v7.0.0
30 error must provide string spec
31 verbose exit 1

Solution: Downgrade npm to 6.14.11 with npm install -g [email protected].

afalahi · 2021-08-25T15:31:17Z

I'm having the same issue with npm v7.20 and NodeJS v16. I using create-react-app when running into this error. I had to downgrade to NPM v6.14 since that's the only solution that seemed to work. What's going on?

rmacrino · 2021-09-01T23:21:50Z

I'm having the same issue with npm 7.21.1
I had to download version 6.14 and it worked fine

josegl · 2021-09-02T07:37:01Z

In my case I had
...
  "dependencies": {
    "//": [],
...
Since I've used it to leave comments in package.json. After removing - works fine

That was the actual problem, in npm versions > 6.14 the package.json comments are not supported anymore as @syabro commented last March. I faced this issue last spring as well, so I inspected the run of npm install with the --inspect-brk flag in order to locate the problem, and voilà, I had a comment in my package.json, so deleting it fixed the problem.

JattCoder · 2021-10-22T13:44:46Z

Try deleting package-lock.json file and try again -> npm i

ronilaukkarinen · 2021-10-29T10:45:03Z

For me it was the old browserslist syntax in package.json:

    "browserslist": [
      "last 2 version",
      "> 1%"
    ],

After removing this verything works with npm 7-8.

IPI-Paul · 2021-11-08T12:01:19Z

I just had the must provide string spec error when trying to run nmp install puppeteer

Everything was okay until I ran npm install npm -g, before running npm install -g typescript

So I tried npm install -g puppeteer and it worked without error

snpiyasooriya · 2023-11-22T06:16:14Z

To solve it, I had to delete package-lock.json file.

this worked for me.

davesag added Bug thing that needs fixing Needs Triage needs review for next steps Release 7.x work is associated with a specific npm 7 release labels Nov 3, 2020

davesag closed this as completed Nov 6, 2020

darcyclarke added this to the OSS - Sprint 19 milestone Nov 16, 2020

davesag reopened this Nov 16, 2020

wraithgar closed this as completed Jan 21, 2021

wraithgar removed the Needs Triage needs review for next steps label Jan 21, 2021

diberry mentioned this issue Feb 10, 2021

Update to ES6, cassandra-driver 4x. Azure-Samples/azure-cosmos-db-cassandra-nodejs-getting-started#6

Merged

raashika03 mentioned this issue Apr 12, 2021

Updating to accept code written in ES6 edamontology/edam-browser#108

Closed

sersorrel mentioned this issue Nov 13, 2023

[BUG] specific diff3 conflict is not parsed #6989

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[BUG] NMP v7 error on install — 'must provide string spec' #2117

[BUG] NMP v7 error on install — 'must provide string spec' #2117

davesag commented Nov 3, 2020

nlf commented Nov 4, 2020

davesag commented Nov 6, 2020

sjahlstrom commented Nov 16, 2020 •

edited

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silvenon commented Nov 19, 2020

wraithgar commented Jan 21, 2021

silvenon commented Jan 22, 2021

wraithgar commented Jan 22, 2021

diberry commented Feb 9, 2021 •

edited

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ljharb commented Feb 9, 2021

diberry commented Feb 9, 2021

josegl commented Mar 4, 2021 •

edited

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Feder1co5oave commented Mar 6, 2021

nlf commented Mar 6, 2021

sprise commented Mar 8, 2021 •

edited

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ajeetshah commented Mar 13, 2021

Houssk commented Mar 16, 2021

jpall12 commented Mar 17, 2021

MrSalazer commented Mar 24, 2021

wyatt-troia commented Mar 27, 2021

syabro commented Mar 29, 2021

ronilaukkarinen commented Jun 21, 2021

afalahi commented Aug 25, 2021

rmacrino commented Sep 1, 2021

josegl commented Sep 2, 2021

JattCoder commented Oct 22, 2021

ronilaukkarinen commented Oct 29, 2021

IPI-Paul commented Nov 8, 2021

snpiyasooriya commented Nov 22, 2023

[BUG] NMP v7 error on install — 'must provide string spec' #2117

[BUG] NMP v7 error on install — 'must provide string spec' #2117

Comments

davesag commented Nov 3, 2020

Current Behavior:

Expected Behaviour:

Steps To Reproduce:

Environment:

nlf commented Nov 4, 2020

davesag commented Nov 6, 2020

sjahlstrom commented Nov 16, 2020 • edited Loading

silvenon commented Nov 19, 2020

wraithgar commented Jan 21, 2021

silvenon commented Jan 22, 2021

wraithgar commented Jan 22, 2021

diberry commented Feb 9, 2021 • edited Loading

ljharb commented Feb 9, 2021

diberry commented Feb 9, 2021

josegl commented Mar 4, 2021 • edited Loading

Feder1co5oave commented Mar 6, 2021

nlf commented Mar 6, 2021

sprise commented Mar 8, 2021 • edited Loading

ajeetshah commented Mar 13, 2021

Houssk commented Mar 16, 2021

jpall12 commented Mar 17, 2021

MrSalazer commented Mar 24, 2021

wyatt-troia commented Mar 27, 2021

syabro commented Mar 29, 2021

ronilaukkarinen commented Jun 21, 2021

afalahi commented Aug 25, 2021

rmacrino commented Sep 1, 2021

josegl commented Sep 2, 2021

JattCoder commented Oct 22, 2021

ronilaukkarinen commented Oct 29, 2021

IPI-Paul commented Nov 8, 2021

snpiyasooriya commented Nov 22, 2023

sjahlstrom commented Nov 16, 2020 •

edited

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diberry commented Feb 9, 2021 •

edited

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josegl commented Mar 4, 2021 •

edited

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sprise commented Mar 8, 2021 •

edited

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